


(i like me better) when i'm with you

by ScreechTheMighty



Series: Talk Some Sense To Me [9]
Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Dating, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Not Canon Compliant, no beta reader we die like men, part of a series, really not canon compliant, t0m and i aren't on speaking terms, tags to be updated as fic progresses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 10:26:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28469757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScreechTheMighty/pseuds/ScreechTheMighty
Summary: If they're going to be on Solace for another week, they might as well put that time to good use. (Or, the next couple of dates, small though they might be.)
Relationships: Mirage | Elliott Witt/Wraith | Renee Blasey
Series: Talk Some Sense To Me [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1370614
Comments: 8
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Ending 2020 by returning to the fandom that defined most of my fic writing experience for the past year. And hey, look at that! We made it through! Go, us. Here's hoping 2021 is less of a shitshow (both in general and in terms of the Apex writing creating less drama, because. Whoo, boy, what the heck was everything from season five onwards).
> 
> ALSO, this is part of a series, so it won't make a ton of sense if you haven't read, bare minimum, "caught between forever and nothing at all" and "all the silly things we hide/just to keep our peace of mind."

Wraith wasn’t used to inaction. She had meant to take the time to rest, physically _and_ mentally. Physically resting was easy—especially when she was still in some pain.

Mentally, though? Wasn’t happening. Her mind kept racing back to all the information Crypto had helped her uncover, information she hadn’t really had the chance to look at with everything going on. It wasn’t long before she found herself sitting at the kitchen table, going through what was _mountains_ of data. More than she was usually able to grab on her own.

She should’ve expected that. He knew his way around tech better than she did. _I’ll have to ask him what program he uses…_

Wraith was so intent on her research that she almost missed the texts from Elliott.

_My mom did that mom thing where she made too much food. Do you want tamales? They’re better than mine real talk._

He included pictures. Wraith had to admit: they _did_ look good. She’d been eating a lot of prepackaged food over the past few days, and the prospect of something someone actually _made_ was deeply tempting.

 _Sounds good,_ she texted back. _Come by whenever. Don't worry if I look like a mess._

_I mean my bruises are yellow now so you probably look better than me :( Give me an hour though my uncle is here and it's gonna take at least half of that to get away from him. He talks more than I do._

So that was where he got it from.

Elliott showed up just over an hour later with the resigned look of someone who had been dragged into conversations he didn't want to have. "You know, for someone who shouldn't even be allowed to own a gun, my uncle has a lot of advice on improving my Legends game," he said.

Wraith grimaced sympathetically as she let him in. "Not letting you live down the incident, huh? Why shouldn't he own a gun?"

"Not even a little. And he literally has no depth perception. Chemical exposure or something when he was a kid, messed up one of his eyes. He _insists_ he knows how to work around it but I sure don't trust him. Uh, where do you want me to….?"

"Kitchen counter is fine. And I know, it's…" Wraith looked around the apartment, trying to see it the way someone used to homier spaces might. "...I don't really spend a lot of time here, but the Legends compound is shut down, so…"

So the only place she had to go was an apartment with just enough in it to live. She'd never considered it a permanent home, so there was no point in decorating. She'd never considered anywhere a permanent home, really.

“Well, I mean…the view’s nice,” Elliott pointed out. He gestured towards the one big window in the living room. He wasn’t wrong. Solace’s cityscape looked nice at night. She’d watch the city lights when she couldn’t sleep. “My first apartment came with a view of the dumpsters. What are you doing?”

“Crypto grabbed some data for me at World’s Edge. I was just going through it.” And now that she was standing, Wraith could feel how long she’d been sitting there. Her knees ached; so did her back. “I could probably use a break. Are you doing anything right now?”

Elliott perked up immediately, then tried to play it cool. “Only thing on my schedule is getting lectured by extended family more, but I think I can reschedule that,” he said. “Only because it’s you, though.”

Wraith smiled, trying to hide some of her sheepishness. “Okay. It’s a date.”

“…do you mean that colloquially, or…”

“Do you _want_ it to be a date?”

“I wouldn’t hate that.”

“Then I mean it literally.”

Any smoothness Elliott had been able to scrape together fell away, immediately replaced by the kind of gentle shyness that Wraith found so endearing. “Okay. Cool. Uhm.” He looked around again. “I didn’t bring plates…”

Fortunately for him, while Wraith didn’t have much in the way of decoration, she _did_ have dishes. They settled down at the table once Wraith had pushed all her work aside. Elliott gave some of it a cursory glance. "I think I understand some of these words," he said. "Like, individually, not in the order they're written."

"It's a lot of manifests," Wraith said. Even she had to admit, it was about as riveting as reading a contact registry from start to finish. "Nothing related to me yet, but I'd even take some juicy IMC secrets no one's uncovered." Wraith wasn't sure she wanted to think about that now, so she quickly found a different topic. "You heard from anyone back on Talon?"

"Natalie, actually, just to make sure I hadn't dropped dead while she wasn't looking. I guess it's business as usual back with the games. They're not even really talking about us, so…" He gestured around the space. "This was a good plan. Out of sight, out of mind, bonus points if Ashwin flips out again once he gets press privileges back. I found an uncensored cut of the interview, by the way."

"Oh, no."

"Oh, yeah. I had to run some of it through a translator. I had _no idea_ you could be so insulting in Japanese. He went _off._ "

Wraith had to put her fork down and cover her mouth to suppress an ugly laugh. "I wish," she said once she was calm, "I could've been there for that PR meeting. He must be making them miserable."

"Right?!" Elliott didn't bother to hold back his own burst of giggles. "I mean, fine by me. It's boring if there's not at least one person starting non-violent shit that doesn't involve me."

"True." Wraith might have tried to avoid the drama herself, but that didn't stop her from wanting to know when it _did_ happen. Maybe Elliott had worn off on her. Maybe she'd always been like that and didn't remember. Or maybe it was just human nature. She wasn't sure. She just knew that for once the _maybes_ didn't bother her so much.

Good company and good food helped with that one.

"You'll have to thank your mom for me," Wraith said. "This is really good."

Elliott beamed with obvious pride. "I'll try to be low-key about it," he said. "I mean, unless you're fine with being swamped with food every time you're back planetside. Trust me, she _will_ do that if she catches on you like her cooking."

From the amount of food that had been sent over already, Wraith had a feeling that _swamped_ wasn't an exaggeration. But despite that warning, and despite the deep down awareness that _accepting food from Elliott's mother_ felt like a fairly big step in a relationship that was, in its current form, still new…

Wraith had to admit. She didn't hate the idea.


	2. Chapter 2

"So, I know this is going to sound crazy," Elliott said, "but hear me out: hats are actually the best starting project."

He hoped he didn't sound too nervous or frantic. It wasn't third date jitters that had set his nerves on edge, or the prospect of trying to explain something to someone (trying to explain processes had _never_ been his strong suit). Wraith just looked...exhausted. Bad day, apparently. It was part of the reason they'd gotten together (and his heart still ached at the memory of reading _I just don't want to be alone right now_ ), but it also made the whole thing a lot weightier.

Or at least, it did to him. Maybe she'd be fine with bare minimum, so long as she had company. But _he_ wouldn't. He liked her too much for that. And he had _too much_ genes from both sides of the family, _but_ they was neither him nor there.

"Why are hats the best project?" Wraith asked. She hadn't stopped gripping at the yarn skein since Elliott had passed it to her. On the plus side, the contact seemed to give her some comfort.

"Because scarves take a lot more yarn and about twenty million years even _if_ you don't have my messed up attention span." The exaggeration got a very, _very_ small smile out of Wraith, which he counted as a win. "Hats don't take nearly that long. Even less time if you're making them for babies, but since neither of us know of any babies in need of hats…" He hesitated. "You...don't know of any babies in need of hats, right?"

"Not unless Crypto or Pathfinder has been keeping something from us."

The thought of Pathfinder with a baby was an absolutely _ridiculous_ mental image, but somehow one that made more sense than Crypto with a baby. "So, definitely don't know of any babies in need of hats." Elliott hesitated. "Hey, if you're not up for this, we can do something else. I just…I don't know."

It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Keep your hands and mind busy and everything would be fine, right? That usually worked for him, most of the time. It was either that or start drinking, but he still wasn't sure he was ready to drink around her after _last_ time.

"No, no, I want to do this, I do." Wraith set the yarn down and rubbed her eyes. "I'm here. I really am. I'm just... _tired_."

Not for the first time, Elliott wanted to find whoever had done this to her and hit them. At least her problems had a face connected to them that _could_ be punched, for whatever that was worth.

"You don't have to apologize," Elliott said immediately. "Hey.” He moved a bit closer, but stopped himself from doing the thing that he would _usually_ do in a situation like this. “I get it. Uhm, is it okay if…?”

Obviously, it was right to ask, but he wasn’t sure _how._ So he just kind of awkwardly held out his arm and hoped she got the hint.

Wraith nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, it’s okay.”

Oh, good, there was that crisis averted. Still, Elliott was careful as he rested a hand on her shoulder and squeezed slightly. Just because he had permission didn’t mean she might change her mind or that he’d accidentally be a bit too much anyway. "I get it, and I'm here," Elliott said. "Whatever you need. Within reason. I don't know if you noticed, but most of my miracles are fake. Sleight of hand and whatnot..."

Wraith laughed, and, to Elliott's surprise, moved closer to lean against him. "Thanks."

_She smells like coffee,_ Elliott thought. He hoped that was a choice and not a cry for help. “Of course.” He gave her a gentle hug. “At least neither of us are bleeding right now.”

“Yeah, good point.” She pulled away from the hug and rubbed her eyes. Despite that gesture, she did look a little more cheerful. “So…hats?”

Elliott somehow remembered how to knit enough to show her, and Wraith was a fast learner. The final result definitely looked better than Elliott’s first attempt had been. He didn’t think that with jealousy; he was happy for her. Especially since she seemed a lot calmer by the end of the evening.

_Score one for us._ He was going to have to get her more yarn.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is taken from "I Like Me Better" by Lauv. I'm on tumblr as screechthemighty for general blogging and respawncinematicuniverse for specifically my Apex and Titanfall content...though I've accidentally been neglecting that blog, whoops. Also, fair warning, my personal is a LOT of Mandalorian and God of War lately. I just really love sad murder dads.


End file.
